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Monthly Archives: February 2009

After a long-ish call, bouncing around between a couple departments we got it all sorted out. I’ve now got a residential FiOS TV account along side my business FiOS Internet account. The channel line-up looks perfect, the cost is OK, and the TiVo’s happily recording off-the-air and FiOS sources.

So I finished painting the trim in Reese’s room and started in on the bed only to find that it was missing the instructions. A quick trip to Ikea’s web site later and I’ve got a copy printed out. Next bit of fun was that I was missing some parts. So back to Ikea I go. After an hour or so of confusion about which parts I went back up to take a look at the display model. What do I find but that most of the pieces I thought I was missing weren’t in fact missing. I did still need the grippy strips and safety strap for the ladder, but everything else was there. It’s the instructions which were wrong. That’s the first time I’ve ever run into instructions which were that wrong. After a few hours of work, there’s now a loft bed with desk ready for Reese. Well, almost ready. I still need to pick up some pillows and linens…

I ran up to Homebrew HQ to pick up some kegging supplies, specifically a third CO2 supply line since I have a third port on the check valve. Unfortunately, that third port isn’t flowing gas so I’m still stuck at two lines. I’ll expand later.

After that I kegged the wheat beer I started a couple weeks ago. Final gravity was a little higher than I expected at 1.013 but it’s very tasty even straight out of the carboy. A week or two in the fridge and it’s going to be yummy! Too bad Lent’s starting. I guess it’ll be a weekend treat until Pascha.

Finally I took three pounds of honey that one of my godbrothers brought back from Holy Archangels Monastery. The monks there keep bees and have some honey to spare. It’s really good stuff, almost untouched. I dissolved three pounds into a final volume of a gallon and pitched a packet of Lalvin D-47. It’ll be a nice treat for him once it’s done…

I did up an extract batch of wheat today. Really simple batch, just 6.6 pounds of extract, 1.5 oz. Tettnang, 1.5 oz. Hallertauer, and Wyeast 1010 yeast. I had a bit of trouble with the yeast not swelling up like it should, which I initially attributed to it being an older pack. When I finally pitched it turned out that the nutrient pack didn’t open so I ended up pitching unactivated yeast. I did have one major positive though. I found an adapter for a sink to garden hose so I did my chilling in the master bath instead of having to lock up cats and run a garden hose in from outdoors. Much better!

This one’s taken a while to get through, what with me starting school and everything. I actually started it on the train ride back from Illinois but had to put it down because of the insanity that was January. Now that I’m done I can say that I really like this book. I’m not just going to regurgitate the jacket notes, but it’s really good. It, to me, doesn’t feel like a stand-alone novel like some of the others in this series were. It feel more like a book used to set up the next few books. And it’s done in such a good way. I didn’t want it to end, but the way it did has left me urging Mr. Butcher to write faster!

Well, the installation is done but it’s not quite right. There’s still a bit of a knowledge gap between the business and residential sides in the ordering center so I was not provisioned with what I was told I was going to get. That means I’m missing a ton of sports and HD channels. The good news is that at least here in North Texas we’re getting multi-stream CableCards so I didn’t need two of them for the TiVo. I’m going to call Verizon in the morning and see what I can do to get the programming issues resolved…

I went out to Ikea this morning to take a look at the bed that they had on sale. I got there about a half an hour before the store opened, but in time for breakfast. Unfortunately the hundreds of other people had exactly the same idea. So, to the back of the line to wait to get in. And then the unexpected happened. There was an employee walking down the line, handing out coupons for the mattress deal I was there to look at. I snagged one and waited my turn. On the way in they had the mattress, box spring, and topper set up so of course I hopped up and tried it out. Perfect!

With the pressure off thanks to that coupon I enjoyed breakfast a lot more and then headed over to the kids section to look for a bed for Reese. I was in luck and also picked up a loft bed, mattress, and desk setup for him as well. So now when he comes down this summer he’ll have somewhere to sleep other than the floor!